1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a purchase checkout system to be used to expedite the checkout procedures without the need of a store employee individually scanning every item to be purchased, while properly scanning every item to be purchased, thereby expediting the checkout procedure, eliminating the possibility of missing an item during scanning by careless or dishonest employees, and providing a continuously moving checkout procedure.
2. Description of the Related Art
When shopping at a self-service store such as a grocery store, consumers are often faced with the dilemma of waiting in lengthy lines before checking out. These lengthy lines often result from the necessity that a store cashier handle each item, find the location of the bar code of the item, and scan the particular item, a process which is fraught with error and may result in particular items not being scanned if the store employee is careless or untrustworthy. For these reasons, it would be highly beneficial to have a checkout system which assures that each item is scanned, provides multi-directional scanning such that the item need not be particularly oriented in order for it to be scanned, and does not require a store employee to individually handle and scan each item, thereby expediting the procedures.
In the past, other checkout systems, such as those recited in the patents to Humble, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,676,343, Barth, U.S. Pat. No. 4,766,296, and Ono, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,013,896, have attempted to increase the efficiency of the checkout system at grocery stores and the like. These systems, however, require individual scanning of each individual item either by a consumer or by a store employee, thereby not fully addressing the problems in the art. Further, other checkout scanning systems, such as those recited in the patents to Collins, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,694, and Silverman, U.S. Pat. No. 4,084,742, utilize specifically adapted scanners which while suitable for their intended purpose nonetheless require each individual item to be scanned, a procedure which can be substantially time-consuming as compared with a system which utilizes continuously moving transport means to pass each item through a scanning chamber which automatically scans all exposed sides of the item for pricing data, thereby eliminating the need for an individual store attendant and enable a consumer to continue unloading items from their shopping cart while previously unloaded items are being scanned and transported to a packaging area. The checkout systems of the prior art fail to recite or suggest a checkout system which will eliminate the need for individually manipulating and scanning each item to be purchased by combining a platform having transport means to carry an item to be purchased from a receiving area to a packaging area, through a scanning tunnel which includes a multi-directional scanning cell to read pricing data on an exposed side of the item regardless of its position within the tunnel, as is recited by the present invention.